New Restaurant HVAC Problems, HELP HELP

My cousins new restaurant just opened, and we can't get it to cool
down. Here's the scoop so far.
It has 2 Carrier units, a 12 ton and an 8 ton
Both units have been checked numerous times, coils are clean,
temperatures and amperage are all good, supply air is 60 degrees and
return air is 80 degrees.
So everyone says the units are working hard, and they are not the
problem.
The restaurant is 8,000 square feet. I know a study probably needs to
be done, but we need some tempoarary fix or suggestions until then.
Here is what we tried so far, that did not work,
We shut off all of the air ducts in the kitchen area, to try and help
get more air into the dining rooms.
There are no return air ducts in the dining rooms, only on one wall of
the building, above the ceiling and over the kitchen. So we ran 2
18"insulated ducts across the ceiling to the dining areas to try to
move the air from these rooms, rather than send the hotter load above
the kitchen to the return.
We placed a couple rotating fans on the floor to try and move the air.
None of this really did anything. It is about 90 degrees out here, and
humid. The restaurant is about 75 when empty to 85 inside when filled
to capacity. This will kill business, we need a temporary fix.
I measured the air temperature at the supply ducts in the dining room,
and it measures 67 to 70 degrees. The air coming out of the supply
ducts was at the top of or beyond the a/c guys flow meter readings, so
the air flow out is good.
The dining room ceilings are about 16 feet high open to the corrugated
roof over the aws joists.The return, if you want to call it that, is
the drop ceiling plenum over the bar and kitchen areas which runs back
to the back wall where the a/c units are. There are about 4 foot by 3
foot screens on the return ducts, which i cleaned. Now we also have
three 8 inch insulated ducts pushed up against the return ducts that we
ran to the dining areas to try and pull air from them better.
Should we turn the kitchen ducts back open? What should we do? help.

but did you increase the size of the other ductwork to
accomodate the extra airflow??

hahaha thanks for the sunday morning laff. stupidity at its finest.
You should re-duct ALL of the supply air and return air from both ac
units to the dining room-bar only, and at the same time put in a
ceiling at around 12 feet. Without a ceiling, figure on adding
another 25-30 tons of cooling.
Kitchens require their own seperate exhaust fans and make up air
units. If you plan on air conditioning your kitchen on a seperate
system, figure 50-100 sqft per ton.

He never did say *where* the place is, and if the existing equipment has
been checked and serviced by a *competent* HVAC tech.
I have a customer (a catfish house) where had "Bubba" install a new split
system, and he screwed with the other 4 systems too.
Between the 5 systems, after cleaning and serviceing them, I recovered
almost 20 pounds of excess refrigerent.
Its fun to pull a bunch of refrigerant out and when you start getting close
to a balanced charge, have the owner come running out wanting to know what
you did because the system started working!!!.
Watch out if you have a "Bubba" in the area.... I have recovered over 100lbs
of excess refrigerant in the last 2 months.

Since they are near to the end of R-22, that will be valuable
refrigerant in a few years. Nice long shelf life, too. Doesn't go bad
like milk or soda pop.
Yep, I bet they come running out and wonder what you did.

So tell me.... when was the last time *YOU* correctly balanced a refrigerant
charge?? What was the SH?? SC?? SST?? What kind of digital clamp-on
thermocouple did you use?? What size of system was it?? When you sucked the
liquid from the high side hose into the system, how did it effect it?? (You
*DO* use dry-break fittings on your hoses, don't you??). BTW... do you even
OWN a recovery can??

Listen to what "Nooner" says. It is true. If you find a "Bubba" in the
are, be very very careful.
The only thing worse is if you have one of those nasty side-winder
"Nooners" in your area. If you have one of those you are fucked!
Bubba :-)

Thanx.... its been another long day.... recovered another 18 lbs of R-22
from grossly overcharged systems.... and had one that had the schraders
filled with Leak-Loc and wrench tight caps on them..... I guess the last guy
didn't have one of those nifty core replacement tools??

Dont worry, Dork! No one here expects a "Tard" like you to get
anything in here. Maybe you should just go find your own "point" and
go sit on it.
Bubba
On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 05:05:23 GMT, no one that you know

Does it really matter? A dinky Wendy's fast food joint uses as much
and usually more than this guy has in that restaurant. The engineer
screwed up big time, especially with a warehouse style open floor
plan.
...Ron
--
68'RS Camaro
88'Formula
00'GT Mustang

I live less than a mile from this restaurant I've talked to the owner many
times. He wants me to check the system out But doesn't want to pay me. It is
in a brand new strip mall. The south and west walls are ALL GLASS. The
thermostats get direct sunlight from 4pm on. He just installed shades on the
windows.This helped a little.The problem was worst when we had a 10 day
period of 95 + degrees temps with 80%+ RH. I think the economizers were
never set up right. The high ceilings & extreme solar load isn't helping
any. I'd be glad to help him but I don't work for free!!!

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